Box Score vs. Michigan State 9-15-09

The University of Detroit Mercy women's soccer squad erased an early deficit and evened the score at 1-1 against Michigan State on a goal by freshman Nina Carter (Clinton Twp., MI/Chippewa Valley), but the Spartans' offense was too strong overall as the Titans fell 3-1 in East Lansing Tuesday.

Carter's goal, assisted by junior Selena Stanski (Tecumseh, ON/St. Anne's Secondary), was her team-leading third of the season, and only the second goal scored against Michigan State (5-0-1) this season. She took a long pass down the right side of the field and from 12 yards out beat the keeper on the far side of the net in the 36th minute.

The Titans (2-3-1) have now found the net in three consecutive matches in which they have scored four of their five goals this season.

UDM and MSU appeared to be headed into intermission with the score knotted, but with under 40 seconds until the half Spartans' sophomore Lauren Hill put a header into the back of net to tally her eighth goal of the season and put the home team back on top.

“I think we played well against a very good team today,” said Detroit head coach Mike Lupenec. “We did some very good things and just made a mistake right before halftime, but I think we came out and played even better in the second half.”

The Titans were outshot 11-1 in the opening stanza as sophomore keeper Joanna Hinde (Shelby Twp., MI/Eisenhower) made four stops in the net, but came back to contain the Spartans' offense in the final 45 minutes. Hinde finished the game with nine saves to run her season total to 38.

“Our defense went up against the best forwards we're probably going to see all year,” said Lupenec. “We saw some things today from some of the players and I think we've finally got our back line solidified and we know what our best combinations are up front. We maybe just need to figure some things out in the midfield and then I think we'll be good to go. If we get that figured out in time for the conference season to start we're going to be fine.”

Detroit will continue its road trip on Friday with a 4 p.m. match in Mt. Pleasant against Central Michigan. In 2008 the Chippewas topped the Titans 3-1 at Titan Field and are 4-3-0 to start this season.